Overheard my neighbor swearing by soaking oven racks in a trash bag with ammonia

I always scrubbed oven racks with steel wool and elbow grease, took me a good hour per rack and I still missed spots. Last week I was out back and caught my neighbor saying he just puts his racks in a heavy duty trash bag with a cup of ammonia, seals it up, and leaves it in the sun for the afternoon. I figured it was nonsense but tried it yesterday with my gas range racks that were caked with baked on grease. After about 4 hours I opened the bag expecting nothing, but the grime literally slid off when I rinsed them with the hose. No scrubbing at all. Now I'm kinda mad at myself for wasting all that time and ruined sponges. Anybody else got a weird cleaner trick that sounds wrong but actually works better?

2 comments

2 Comments

schmidt.amy1mo ago

Careful, or you'll start soaking everything in ammonia. I've been there.

gibson.sean1mo ago

Yeah I get the warning but I kind of think that's an overreaction... "soaking everything in ammonia" sounds like a slippery slope argument. A lot of people find one cleaner that works and stick with it, doesn't mean they've lost all perspective.